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Leona Marlin-Romeo: Prime Minister of Sint Maarten from 2018

Leona Marlin-Romeo was Prime Minister of Sint Maarten from January 2018 until October 2019, leading the interim cabinet and the cabinet formed after the 2018 elections.

By SXM Daily ·

Leona Marlin-Romeo became Prime Minister of Sint Maarten on 15 January 2018, when she was sworn in. She led both the interim cabinet of January 2018 and the cabinet formed after the February 2018 elections.

Portrait of Leona Marlin-Romeo, 2015

Photo: Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

The interim cabinet, January 2018

On 12 January 2018, Governor Eugene Holiday received the final report of formateur Sarah Wescot-Williams, which nominated Marlin-Romeo as Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs. She was sworn in with the interim cabinet on 15 January 2018. In his speech that day, as published by StMaartenNews, the Governor said the new council of ministers was "supported by the new majority in Parliament".

He listed the cabinet's tasks as: furthering the recovery from Hurricane Irma with the Netherlands, revisiting the 2018 budget, carrying out the border-control agreement with the Netherlands, implementing the law on the Integrity Chamber, and holding the 26 February elections.

The second cabinet, June 2018

The Cabinet of the Governor's news archive sets out the steps after the 26 February 2018 elections. Governor Holiday held consultations on the results on 27 February, appointed informateurs on 1 March, received their report on 12 March, and on 16 March 2018 asked Theodore Heyliger to form a government.

After the elections, the Governor received the final report of formateur Theodore Heyliger on 22 June 2018. It again nominated Marlin-Romeo as Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs, and the appointment and swearing-in were set for 25 June 2018 at the Governor's Office.

End of her premiership, October 2019

Marlin-Romeo remained Prime Minister until 10 October 2019. That Thursday, the Council of Ministers accepted her resignation as caretaker Prime Minister and appointed the caretaker Minister of Education, Wycliffe Smith, as Prime Minister in her place, The Daily Herald reported the next day.

Earlier career

Before entering politics, Marlin-Romeo headed the Civil Registry Department of Sint Maarten; Soualiga Newsday reported on her work in that role in June 2014, when she described training courses that would give the department's staff recognised diplomas. She later served as a Member of Parliament, at one point sitting as an independent MP. In that period Parliament unanimously accepted her motion to set up a registry to help people born outside St. Maarten obtain certified copies of their birth certificates, The Daily Herald reported, describing her as the former head of the Civil Registry.

Sources

  • https://web.archive.org/web/2020/https://www.kabgsxm.com/news.aspx?language=EN
  • https://stmaartennews.com/government/speech-governor-holiday-swearing-interim-ministers/
  • https://www.kabgsxm.com/news-entry.aspx?id_news=189&language=NL
  • https://web.archive.org/web/20191017030908/www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/91653-smith-appointed-prime-minister
  • https://www.soualiganewsday.com/index.php?Itemid=504&id=285%3Acivil-registry-department-staff-undergoes-training&option=com_k2&view=item
  • https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/registry-to-be-made-for-access-to-foreign-birth-certificates

Source: https://web.archive.org/web/2020/https://www.kabgsxm.com/news.aspx?language=EN

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